小丑魚討厭聚光燈，這可能會害死它們

小丑魚討厭聚光燈，這可能會害死它們

Clownfish may look like coral reefs' natural entertainers, but they don't like being in the spotlight. It appears their shy nature extends to their hatching, as they won’t even leave their eggs if the lights are too bright. This means coastal developments, often accompanied by a lot of light spilling into coastal waters, could be a menace to clownfish, and quite likely most other forms of reef fish as well.

小丑魚可能看起來像珊瑚礁的天然表演者，但其實它們不喜歡在聚光燈下。它們害羞的天性似乎延伸到了孵化期，因為如果光線太亮，它們甚至不會孵出殼。這意味著隨著沿海地區(qū)的發(fā)展，大量的燈光進入沿海水域，這可能對小丑魚造成了威脅，對大多數(shù)其他形式的礁魚也是如此。

It’s well known that coral reefs are under threat from rising temperatures, ocean acidification, overfishing, and runoff from the shores. Dr Emily Fobert of Flinders University wondered if there might be an additional danger we've been missing – light pollution, which she calls ALAN, or Artificial Light At Night.

眾所周知，珊瑚礁正受到氣溫上升、海洋酸化、過度捕撈和海岸徑流的威脅。弗林德斯大學的Emily Fobert博士想知道我們是否忽略了一個額外的危險——光污染，也就是晚上的人造光，簡稱ALAN。

“There is a lot of research on the effects of ALAN on terrestrial organisms,” Fobert told IFLScience, “but very little looking at the impact on the marine environment. I found that surprising because fish are not immune to exposure to light.” Fobert is aware of two studies on the effects of ALAN on fish, but both are on behavior such as foraging, not reproduction.

“關于人造光對陸地生物的影響做了很多研究，”Fobert表示，“但是很少有人關注它對海洋環(huán)境的影響，當我發(fā)現(xiàn)魚對光線沒有免疫力時非常驚訝。”Fobert之前注意到兩項關于人造光對魚的影響的研究，但都是關于覓食等行為，而不是繁殖。

Fobert decided to test clownfish because “they are site-specific. If they have settled in one location and they are exposed to light, they will not move away.”

于是福伯特決定拿小丑魚做實驗對象，因為“它們是有地點特性的，一旦它們定居到了一個地方，有光照，它們就不會離開。”

When Fobert shone 21 lux onto the surface of the waters beneath which clownfish were living, she found none of their eggs hatched. However, a batch in the same conditions, light exposure aside, hatched normally, she reported in Biology Letters. Fobert told IFLScience it is common for lights on piers to shine 200 lux of light onto the waters below them and 21 is a conservative estimate of the exposure reefs close to tourist establishments can be exposed to.

當Fobert將21lux的光照射到小丑魚生活的水面上時，她發(fā)現(xiàn)小丑魚的蛋一個也沒有孵出來。然而，根據(jù)她在《生物學快報》上的報道，不考慮光照的情況，在同樣的條件下，有一批卵正常孵化。Fobert表示，碼頭上200lux的燈光通常會照射到橋下的水域，保守估計，至少有21lux的光可以照射到靠近旅游景點的礁石上。

With sufficient awareness of the problem, this may be a much easier problem to solve than many of the other threats coral reefs face. Fobert’s work was done with relatively blueish LED lights, which penetrate the water more than longer wavelengths. She’s currently doing a follow-up study using warmer-colored sources, but does not yet have the results to see how much it helps. However, she noted that on land, the effects on many species can be minimized by changing wavelengths.

如果對這個問題有了足夠的認識，那么珊瑚礁所面臨的眾多威脅中，解決這個問題就變得更加容易。Fobert測試時使用的是相對偏藍的LED燈，這種燈穿透海水的波長比較長。她正在使用暖色光源進行后續(xù)研究，看看情況會有多大的改善,但目前還沒有結果。然而，她指出，通過改變波長，對陸地上物種的影響可以最小化。

Other alternatives include switching off coastal lights for a few nights a month or several hours a night. Fobert is hopeful on the latter, noting that many reef fish hatch a few hours after sunset and therefore might not need a whole night of darkness to leave their shell.

她還提出了其他幾個改善方案，比如每月幾個晚上或每晚幾個小時關掉沿海的燈光。Fobert對后者極力推薦，因為許多暗礁魚在日落幾小時后開始孵化，因此不需要一整晚的黑暗來幫它們孵出。

One way or another, we’ll probably need to make some changes if we want to keep finding Nemo close to holiday sites.

不管怎樣，如果我們想在假日景點附近找到Nemo，我們可能需要做出一些改變。